


Don't Read the Comments

by Chash



Series: The Internet Is Forever [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Conventions, F/M, Fandom, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 17:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4488123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apparently, the internet has been shipping Bellamy Blake (of Team Arkade) and Clarke Griffin (of Craven Cosplay). No one told Bellamy about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Read the Comments

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, AO3, I've been at a con for many days, and I missed you. So here is a fic that also involves cons! But not the one I was at. Anyway, this is for the lovely mostlypoptarts, who won my tumblr giveaway! I hope you enjoy it <3 By "you," in this case, I mean mostlypoptarts, but it's cool if everyone else likes it too. Do what you want.

"So, did you know we have a rival?" asks Octavia, bright.

"Which of us?"

"All of us! The entire channel has a rival. And she's going to be here."

Bellamy rubs his face. They've been driving for fucking _days_ , vlogging from the car, at gas stations, anywhere they can get some fun behind-the-scenes footage. Which is Bellamy's least favorite kind of footage, because Octavia always catches him doing something embarrassing, like wearing his glasses or brushing his teeth or exhaustedly rambling about Greek tragedy and/or the Napoleonic Wars.

"O, seriously, all I want to do is shower and pass out, will you stop being fucking cryptic and tell me what's happening?" He throws a glare at Miller for good measure. "Are you filming this?"

"I'm filming everything," Miller says. "I need all the footage I can get, you know that. People love on-the-road shit. Don't worry, stubble's a good look for you."

"That was really what was worrying me," he says dryly, but Miller has his number. Everyone on Team Arkade knows that Bellamy's kind of a fucking narcissist; he cares way too much about how good he looks on camera. He has groupies, okay? He has an image to maintain. For the fans. "Octavia, do you actually have something to tell me or are you just being a brat."

"Clarke Griffin," says O, like this is something that should mean things to Bellamy. "She's a cosplayer? Come on, Bell! She used to be dating, um--that guy who does the Nintendo music remixes with the boyband hair? And then it turned out he was already dating Raven Reyes? She's, like, the most competitive female player of League of Legends and Hearthstone in the world or something, and she and Clarke dumped him and started their own channel for Clarke's cosplay shit. How do you not know any of this?"

"How would I know any of this?" he grumbles. "How do _you_ know any of this? Why do we care?"

"One, she's local, so we could team up. Two, she's just as popular as we are, and she's in our same niche, so people _want_ us to be, like, a thing. Rivals or BFFs or--"

"She's a _cosplayer_ ," he says, dismissive.

"So?" Octavia demands.

"So, we play video games. How do we hit the same demographics? What are we being rivals about?"

"She's a hot, nerdy girl, who hangs out with another hot, nerdy girl, and she dresses up like video game characters," says Miller, dry. "People who like girls want to make out with her, people who don't like girls just think she's cool. And Raven sometimes still does speedruns or streams Hearthstone or whatever. There's a decent amount of crossover."

"You know about this too?" Bellamy asks, turning into their hotel at fucking last.

"I like her stuff," he says, shrugging. "She's an artist and does amazing costumes. Plus, Raven knows how to weld shit. It's fucking badass."

"God, okay, fine," he says. "They're cool, they're in our demographic, good for them. Again, why do I care?"

"Because people are really excited for us to meet them, Bell. Like, people have been speculating on if we'll get along or if we already know each other, if we hate each other, if--"

"They can't decide if you and Griffin are going to make out or murder each other," Miller cuts in. He always appreciates Miller's willingness to drop the bullshit and just get to the point. "People are planning to film your first encounter. There has been fanfiction written about this."

"What," he says, flat. The car's stopped, but he hasn't managed to get out yet, because Miller is filming his reaction to hearing about how people apparently ship him and some cosplayer he's never even heard of.

"She's cute," says Octavia. "You're cute. You're both into video games, she's been single since the whole, you know. She and Raven were dating the same guy thing."

"So the internet is trying to set me up," he says. He flashes a smile at Miller's camera phone. "Thanks for your concern, guys. Really. But I do fine."

"He doesn't," Octavia interjects. "He's sad and alone and no one cares about naval warfare as much as he does."

"Shut up and unpack the car, O."

They've got one big hotel room, him and Octavia in queen beds and Miller on a cot, because Miller keeps weird hours and never sleeps anywhere normal anyway, so he doesn't care if he's just got a cot. And it saves money. They are the fucking best at trips.

Because he does not sleep normally, Miller is editing car footage when Bellamy goes to sleep, but when he wakes up, the others are both asleep, and the alarm won't go off for another half hour, so he googles _Clarke Griffin_.

She _is_ cute, curly blonde hair and blue eyes, not much for smiling, always serious, but she picks her characters well. She has a _gorgeous_ set of Samus armor, and he watches a video of a hot latina girl--Raven--explaining how it's put together with the sound off, Clarke on the side, nodding and interjecting occasionally, while Raven talks with her hands. He guesses he can see how they're popular, although, really, how much can anyone really get out of watching someone make cosplay outfits? Doesn't it get repetitive? Welding is badass, at least, but if Clarke's just sewing and talking about it, he doesn't see how it's as cool as him and Octavia murdering people in Smash Brothers.

But she is pretty cute.

*

They're set up right across from Team Arkade.

"This is a thing, right?" Clarke asks Raven. No one from Team Arkade has showed up yet, but she knows a decent amount about them. The Boston division is the most famous part of the team, Bellamy and Octavia Blake, siblings, not a couple, like she assumed when she heard about them, and Nathan Miller, who's mostly the cameraman but also occasionally crushes Magic: the Gathering competitions and rambles about the mechanics of card games when he's drunk. Clarke hasn't watched that much of their stuff, but Monty's got a crush on Miller and keeps kind of weirdly not-stalking him at Magic events, and it's hard not to hear about the rest of them. There's also a New York division, which includes some guy named Wick Raven went to college with, so it really makes no sense that the internet has decided that, of all the Team Arkade/Craven Cosplay pairings, her and Bellamy Blake is the one they're into. They've never even interacted. Never even come close.

"What is?" Raven asks. She's setting up the greenscreen while Monty does the camera.

"Us and Team Arkade. Someone decided we should be across from each other."

"Oh, yeah, there are, like, bets on what's going to happen."

"Do they know you hate that guy from New York? Are they betting on that too? I think you guys are way more likely to throw down."

Raven scowls. "I don't hate him," she says, reflexive, and Clarke hides a smile. "He's just a fucking dumbass."

"I missed you too, Reyes," says a bright voice, and that must be the New York division, because the Blakes aren't there. Raven's not-friend is tall and scruffy, smirking, and he's got another guy and a girl with him. "You're seriously here?"

"Why do you guys even have a booth? What are you doing with a booth?"

"People want autographs," says Wick, shrugging. "Plus we've got a TV and game system set up so you can play with whichever members of the team feel like gaming, if you're into that. I'm going to make Bellamy play some fucking awful NES games, it's gonna be awesome. You should come stomp him."

"Am I the only one who doesn't know anything about this team?" Clarke asks.

"Oh, hey!" says Wick, grinning at her. "You're Clarke! You're awesome."

"Thanks," she says. "I assume you're Wick."

"Yup. This is Lincoln and Monroe. Blakes are doing some sort of outside filming, which is good, because I'm pretty sure if the much-hyped first meeting between you guys happens before the con even starts, everyone's going to be so pissed."

"I still don't know what anyone is expecting to happen," Clarke says. "Or _why_ anyone is expecting it to happen. Like, how did this become a thing?"

"It's called Bellarke," says Monty; Clarke loves Monty like a brother, but she is going to kill him. "I don't know why it's a thing!" he adds at her glare. "I'm just saying, it's enough of a thing that it has a name. So, yeah. That's cool. It gets us hits! I'm definitely putting up you guys meeting. Again, for hits."

"It's creepy," she protests. "Not--I know it's part of being a public figure, I don't care that people want me and Raven to make out, that's fine. But I've never even met this guy, and somehow we are destined to be and there are actual bets on what's going to happen when we meet? It's going to be so boring! He probably doesn't even care." She pauses. "Not that I care either. That's why it's so weird."

"Uh huh," says Raven. "Of course you don't. I know you were stalking vids of him last week. But we can pretend this is not a thing." She grins, bright and totally fake. "Do you need to do anything before we get started? You've got half an hour."

"I'm going to hit the bathroom" Clarke says, sighing. It's true, but just because, well. She _is_ a little curious about Team Arkade, Boston division. "Maybe touch-up my makeup."

"You look hot, as always," Raven says, with a roll of her eyes. "But we're set here. Do what you gotta do."

Clarke likes the con before it opens best; she's not, like, _famous_ , not an actress or an author or anything, but she's well known and always in costume, so she can't go too far without someone asking for a photo, either because the person recognizes her or just thinks she looks cool. Before anything starts, it's quiet, and she likes seeing people just doing their things, getting ready. The strange, surreal world of the pre-con con.

She's leaning on the second-floor railing, looking out over the floor as some company puts up a giant orc, when she hears someone say, "I hear I'm going to marry you."

She glances over and sees Bellamy Blake leaning next to her. His hair is longer than in the last video she watched, and messier; he's wearing a tight black _Team Arkade_ t-shirt and jeans, and he has freckles. It's no surprise he's so popular--he's even more attractive in person.

"You heard that too, huh?" she asks.

"Well, that or murder you," he says. "Or you murder me. My sister never really specified. Definitely someone was going to die."

"Maybe a murder-suicide thing," she suggests.

He snorts. "Awesome. Dibs on being murdered. Suicide isn't my thing." He offers his hand. "Bellamy."

"Clarke. Apparently we're supposed to meet for the first time in public. There are bets or something. I think my friends might have their own bet. We're crushing dreams right now."

"That's cool. I love dream-crushing." He gives her a smile, and it's a very nice smile. If her only options are murdering him or making out with him, she'd rather make out. "Besides, they deserve it for being creepily over-invested. Apparently. Full disclosure, I'm not really, uh. Up with the rest of the YouTube world, so I found out about this last night from my sister. Everything is new to me."

"You recognized me."

"I googled you after that," he says, shrugging one shoulder. "I was curious."

Clarke laughs. "Yeah, I guess I would have been too." She grins at him. "So, what _are_ we gonna do for our first meeting? Since it's such a big deal for everyone."

He grins back at her. "Yeah, we don't want to disappoint our adoring public, right?" He pulls out his phone and opens up Chrome. "Let's see what they're expecting."

*

Bellamy never likes to be in a position where the internet can say _I told you so_ , but he has to admit, he kind of likes Clarke Griffin. Like, a lot. He'd been on his way to talk to his friend at the Wizards booth when he spotted her looking out over the expo hall, and she'd just looked so peaceful. He was actually incapable of not going over to talk to her.

And then she was--pretty. It's not a word he really associates with women often; he tends to think they're cute or hot or gorgeous. But Clarke is pretty, and she has a nice smile, and her laugh is low and makes him feel like he's winning something every time he gets it out of her.

They lean over his phone together, checking out some actual fucking _Bellarke forum_ , giggling over the weird conspiracy theory posts they find about how they're already together. Plenty of YouTubers end up getting to know each other and having relationships, just because it's a small community and they tend to see a lot of each other at events, if they're in the same genre of vids. But it's still surreal to discover that people want them to date this much, sight unseen.

"I feel a little bad for not knowing today was going to be such a big deal," Clarke remarks. "I would have taken longer with my hair."

Bellamy lets out a huff of laughter. She's dressed as Ashe from Final Fantasy XII, and she looks perfect, aside from the blonde curls. "I assume you're wearing a wig anyway."

"Yeah," she says, making a face. "I need to get back, get Raven to put on my hair net. Oh well, it's nice to have my hair down while it lasts." She offers him a smile, and she's _so_ pretty. 

He'd totally make out with her.

"So, I'll see you in there," she continues, because she doesn't know he's thinking about making out, and can have normal conversations. "Looking forward to playing with you, Bellamy Blake."

He finally gets himself back to the booth about twenty minutes after the expo hall opens; Octavia's signing autographs and taking selfies, and Miller is filming stuff. Bellamy slides in to sit at the TV they've set up and turns it on before anyone's noticed he's there; when the first person does, there's a cheer, and some kid comes up to try to play with him.

"Sorry, man," he says, making his voice carry. Bellamy wouldn't be on YouTube if he wasn't a natural showman. "I've actually got a first challenger all lined up." He flashes a grin. "I heard there's someone here I really have to meet, and I'm hoping she's going to play a game with me. If she's willing."

There's another cheer from the crowd, and if course they all know whom he means. Fucking internet.

"Griffin!" he calls. The crowd parts and there she is across from him, in her wig, raising her eyebrows at him. "Nice to meet you. I'm Bellamy Blake. You want to play?"

"Polite people don't yell," she says, sounding amused. She stands and walks over, sits down delicately in the beanbag chair next to him, mindful of her costume. She offers her hand. "Hi."

"Hi. I hear I'm going to marry you," he says.

"I wish someone had told me. Ashe even _has_ a wedding costume. I could have dressed for the occasion."

"Fail," he says, shaking his head. "What are we playing, Wick?" 

Wick was conferring with Miller, but they stopped to watch the show. Miller's squinting at them, wary, but he doesn't say anything about the act; Wick is fucking grinning. The crowd around them is growing, and they're eating it up. He and Clarke are popular.

"Weirdest fighting game I could find," says Wick. "Ballz 3D."

"What kind of game is this?" asks Clarke, wary. "Is fighting a euphemism? Please tell me we're not doing some weird Atari porn."

"You wish," says Wick, and tosses her a controller. "Atari porn is probably an improvement."

The game is a bunch of weird fighters, vaguely humanoid fighters who are all made out of a bunch of balls, and keep stretching and moving in truly bizarre ways. There's no indication of what any of them do, in terms of the game mechanics, and their match is just the two of them madly button-mashing and laughing their asses off at how fucking _absurd_ it is; the models are hideous, the moves are inexplicable, and there's a sign at the back that keeps displaying really fucking bizarre and sort of dirty messages. Bellamy wins without even being confident he was _doing_ anything. 

Clarke scowls at him, but there's a sparkle in her eye. "You were cheating."

"How would I even cheat? I'm not even sure which one I _was_."

"So maybe you didn't win."

"I'm player one! Player one won!"

"With cheating. We're doing two of three. I picked the wrong fighter. And you're cheating."

"You really think I would _cheat_? At Ballz 3D? If I'm going to cheat, it's going to be at something important."

"So, if Bellamy Blake is ever in an important event, he's definitely cheating," says Clarke. "You heard it here first." She nudges his foot with hers, which was not something they discussed, and it makes him feel warm and stupid with it. "Come in, Blake. Two of three."

She trash-talks the whole time, distracts him enough with fucking _vulgar_ language and creative, ball-based insults, and her genuine crow of delight when she wins the match makes his stupid heart turn over.

She lives near him. She's cool and fun and _pretty_ , and she's going back to the same place he is after this. He could call her. He could ask her to have dinner with him. Anything is possible.

She stands, takes a bow for the audience, and then leans back down and pecks him on the cheek. "Nice to meet you, Bellamy. Better luck next time."

Miller posts a picture of the kiss on the team Twitter account with the hashtag _Bellarke_ ; if Bellamy wasn't still kind of gaping, he'd murder him.

*

"So, when did you meet him?" Raven asks. They're letting Monty run the booth while they grab lunch; Clarke keeps meeting Bellamy's eyes when she looks up and smiling, and she honestly needed a break from that. He's fucking cute, and he knows it.

"Who?" she asks, but she doesn't even know _why_. Playing dumb never works on Raven. "You saw when I met him," she relents, when Raven just continues glaring at her. And then, finally, "I ran into him when I was going to the bathroom. Or he came over to say hi, I guess." Raven keeps frowning, and Clarke glares back. "It's true!"

"Seriously?"

"When else would I have met him?"

"Honestly, that was, like, third-date flirting you guys were doing. I figured you met him back home and decided to fucking troll us."

Clarke chokes on her sandwich. "What?"

"Come on, you guys were all--look, I wasn't on the whole _if they ever meet they will bang or fight_ train, but you guys are definitely going to bang. I'm amazed you haven't already."

"It's been like four hours and we've been working," Clarke says dryly. "At what point would I have banged him, exactly?"

"So you're saying you're going to, you just haven't gotten the chance yet."

Clarke rolls her eyes. "You know this is one of those conversations I can't win, right? No matter what I say, you're going to take it as evidence you're right, so let's just skip it." She waves her hand. "Congratulations, you win at talking. Good job."

There's a long pause, and Raven says, "I give you until the end of the weekend. Tops."

She makes a show of considering it. "Depends on if he has his own room or not."

It's a joke, mostly, but its a little bit true. Clarke's sharing with Raven, and while she could theoretically kick her out to get laid, it seems pretty rude. Raven doesn't have anywhere else to go. Also, she'd have to explain why she was kicking her out, and that would be, well--awkward. Not that Bellamy's said anything. But if he did, well, Clarke would. Assuming they had somewhere to go.

And, given Raven's apparently willing to take one for the team, in the most unsubtle way possible, they very well might. Clarke supposes she can't blame her for being obvious about it. She took a couple more breaks to play games with Bellamy over the course of the day, and they were like fucking teenagers, jostling each other's shoulders for an excuse to touch each other, teasing and flirting and generally being stupidly into each other. Raven showed her some kid's grainy YouTube video of the two of them captioned _IS THIS REAL LIFE???_ and then Clarke took it over to show to Bellamy. Because she is more than a little pathetic. After a _day_.

"You guys can handle the rest of cleanup, right?" Raven asks, clapping her on the shoulder at close. "It's mostly done. Wick is buying me a drink, but I don't want him to think it's a date, so I'm taking everyone else. And you two disappeared this morning, so you're on close. It's totally fair. I'm the most logical."

And then they leave, without waiting for a response.

"So, which forum do you think she posts her fanfic to?" Clarke asks. It's not like there's a whole lot of cleanup to do, since they'll just be back tomorrow, and the expo hall is closed and locked. Just tidying and hiding the valuables they're leaving.

Bellamy snorts. "Why, do you want to read it?"

"Just--it's weird, right?"

He doesn't say anything for a long time, long enough that Clarke is getting irrationally nervous. She didn't say anything offensive, right? It _is_ weird.

She's about to change the subject when he says, "Well, I wish I'd met you sooner," he says. "Or, you know, known about you."

She wets her lips. "Well, this is what you get for not googling _Bellamy Blake fanfiction_."

"And despite that, I'm going to keep never googling it."

"Probably a good call."

He's apparently done with his side, because he comes over to help her with the green screen. He's not quite as tall as she expected him to be, when they were bent over together, but he's broad and solid, and she can feel the heat coming off him. He smells amazing.

"So, if you'd known about me, you would have called me up?" she asks, as casual as she can manage.

"Probably not," he says, smiling at her ruefully. "Not, you know. Based on the internet thinking we should get married. But I would have been pretty curious."

"I hated the first video I saw of you."

He laughs, bright and not at all offended. "Yeah? Which one?"

"Um, it was you streaming World of Warcraft PvP, I think? Just, like, crushing newbies for fun, totally cocky, lots of trash-talk."

"Oh, like you're one to talk about trash-talk," he teases.

"So I thought you were kind of a douche, but then Raven made me watch some of the behind-the-scenes stuff."

He rubs his face, flushing, and embarrassed is a nice look on him. He's cute when he's flustered. "Oh, god."

"So, public persona, cocky dick, private persona, still kind of a cocky dick, but also kind of cute nerd."

"Cute nerd, huh?"

She flicks his temple. "I dig glasses."

He glances around, checking to see if the other merchants have left, and he must be satisfied, because he leans in and kisses her.

It's a fairly quick kiss, chaste, more of a question than anything, but Clarke slides her hand onto his neck as he pulls away and keeps him there, surging up to kiss back, and that's all the encouragement he needs to wrap his arms around her and really go for it. He's a good kisser, dominant without being demanding, moving his hands up and down her back, like he isn't happy with just her mouth on his, needs more. 

They make out at her booth until they hear someone clear their throat, and turn with identical guilty expressions to the security guard.

"We need to lock up," says the guy, in a bored tone. "You guys done here?"

Clarke glances at Bellamy. Her hands messed up his hair even more, and he definitely _looks_ well kissed. "Yeah," she says, reaching down to take his hand. "We can be somewhere else, right?"

He grins. "Lead the way."

*

"Okay," says Bellamy, clapping his hands. "We've got a special guest star today. Try not to get too excited, okay? It's creepy." 

Off-screen, Clarke rolls her eyes at him, and he can't help grinning.

"Seriously, though, it is. I promise my life is not that exciting, you don't have to get over-invested in it. But my girlfriend is here, and she is going to play Mario Party with me. This is us testing our relationship. For real. We've been going out for a couple months, and I'm pretty crazy about her. So if we can finish a game of Mario Party, I think we can make it through anything. If she murders me, I'll have it on video, so Octavia won't have any trouble prosecuting. So yeah!" he says, at Miller's _hurry up_ gesture. "You guys ready?"

"You know you aren't filming in front of a live studio audience, right? No one is going to answer you," Clarke says, flopping down next to him on the couch. Bellamy puts his arm around her and kisses her temple. 

"I live every day like I'm in front of a live studio audience," he says.

"I know. It's one of the hardest things to deal with in this relationship." She smiles and waves at the camera. "Hi, I'm Clarke."

"Just remember, internet, it's not nice to say _I told you so_ ," says Bellamy. "Also, the first person to call us Team Bellarkade already got kicked in the shins, so if you do it, it's not clever, and we will hunt you down."

"The preferred portmanteau YouTube channel name is actually Bellarkade Cosplay Costarring Raven Reyes," says Clarke, straight-faced, and Bellamy shoves her away.

"God, we're going to break up before we even start playing Mario Party, aren't we?"

"I thought we broke up already," she says, grabbing her controller and settling back in, right against his side.

He's not going to tell her he loves her for the first time while they're filming a dumb bit, but she's perfect, and he absolutely _does_. "Oh, right, how could I forget? Well, you guys can at least stay tuned to see if she murders me."

"I think the tape will prove you deserve it if I do, so I feel good about this. Bring it on, Blake."

Bellamy grins at the camera, knows, from years and years of experience on film, exactly how goofy he looks. "So yeah, this is my girlfriend," he says. "I feel good about this too."


End file.
